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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Clarification to Modern Format Policy: Time Spiral Block "Shifted" Cards

Hello again! As I was looking back over the Commander deck lists, I realized something that I omitted in my "new border" policy for the Modern Format.

What happens to all the "Timeshifted", "Colorshifted", and "Futureshifted" cards, since they don't use the exact modern-framed design (again, think anything from Mirrodin through the present day)?

Here's the clarification: "Timeshifted' (Time Spiral), "Colorshifted" (Planar Chaos), and "Futureshifted" (Future Sight) cards are also legal in Modern along with any older-framed (pre-Mirrodin) versions of them.

(images from MagicCards.info)

Time Spiral's "Timeshifted" Example

Planar Chaos' "Colorshifted" Example

Future Sight's "Futureshifted" Example

For those who may have joined the game after Time Spiral block, a bit of a Magic history lesson:

When WotC put together Time Sprial block, they wanted a mix of nostalgia (Time Spiral), shake-ups (Planar Chaos), and future "sneak peaks" (Future Sight). They came up with 3 ways to help identify their special cards:

Time Spiral: Along with the purple-looking expansion symbol on each card, all these cards are direct reprints of pre-Mirrodin classic cards. The card frames are done in the pre-Mirrodin style, thus making it easier to identify them as reprints when you pulled them from packs of Time Spiral.

Planar Chaos: To mix things up a bit compared to how they normally design cards color-wise, they moved some effects into different colors just for Planar Chaos (for example, even though Wrath of God was the normal white mass removal card, to mix things up they gave black a "Wrath" effect in Damnation). These cards had normal rarity denotations (Gold = Rare, Silver = Uncommon, Black = Common) but moved some pre-Mirrodin cards into different colors and changed nothing else but the name and casting cost (example: Pestilence, a black card, was changed to Pyrohemia, a red card that does the exact same thing but is Red instead of Black). The card frame is a bit different from normal post-Mirrodin borders but it's the same basic frame design.

Future Sight: The final set kept the running theme of "cards from different pieces of Magic's history" by introducing cards and mechanics and card types that could be used in future sets. However, some were gags (see Steamflogger Boss). All cards that were like this used a brand-new card frame that may or may not see future use. The card frame has the mana symbols on the left side of the illustration along with a symbol on the top-left corner denoting what kind of card it is (a claw means "Creature", for example). Some examples of cards and/or mechanics that have seen actual use since Future Sight are Phosphorescent Feast (printed 1 year later), Bloodshot Trainee (printed in Scars of Mirrodin), Planeswalkers (previewed on Tarmogoyf and printed in the very next set, Lorwyn), and Shadowmoor/Eventide's cycle of "filter lands" similar to Graven Cairns.


I hope you found this as a moment of clarity for Modern and as an interesting historical piece if you are fairly new to the game. Let me know what you think below. Thanks for reading, and enjoy building for Modern! :)

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